Launched in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Slate Milk is the brainchild of college friends Manny Lubin and Josh Belinsky who set out on a mission to create healthy chocolate milk they could drink every day. The brand has since evolved into a company that sells strength through high protein milkshakes and lattes.
The Boston-based startup recognized early on that having salespeople in the field would be fundamental to their long-term growth strategy. The proof was already in the numbers: on average in that first year of launch, they saw a large increase in sales by having team members on the ground selling the product.
As a result, their sales team has always led their company in headcount. They currently employ about 40 full-time people with a large percent of their team members being in the field — something Belinsky says is the lifeline of the company. “They’re really a key component of our business strategy.”
But finding great talent (and a lot of it) isn’t an easy task.
“Finding really good people who are willing to represent the brand is really hard,” Belinsky said. Being a sales representative is an independent, entrepreneurial role, he added.
Initially, the majority of Slate Milk’s recruiting efforts were largely from team member referrals and LinkedIn job postings. “For a while ago, it worked but it wasn’t ideal as the business grew. And candidly, it’s not where I wanted to invest my time,” Belinsky said. “It’s essential to our business to find great people, and we were really struggling to.”
As a small, growing company, Belinsky had a tough time justifying hiring a recruiter to work on sales representative roles that typically have a higher turnover than others.
The solution? ForceBrands’ job board.
“We received a few 100 qualified people within the first 90 days,” Belinsky says about his success using the Force job board, which he found to be the perfect recruiting medium for sourcing qualified candidates in an affordable way.
“What was great about the job board is that there were tons of folks who came through who were actually in the industry already. That wasn’t necessarily a must-have, but it was definitely really nice from a training perspective.”
Slate Milk added five sales representatives from across the country — from California to Florida — to their growing team leveraging the job board.
“The team is great to work with. Dustin Cherry is the best. Not only does he deal with recruiting but anything you need in business, any connections he can make, he’s happy to help,” he said. “It’s more than just a company. He genuinely wants you to be a part of his network, even if you haven’t bought anything from them yet. I think the whole team is very much like that, which is awesome. They just want to help startups grow.”
On reflecting on his experience team building with Force, Belinsky added:
“For any startup founder, hiring is one of the hardest and most important parts of the job. Finding the right people is very hard and there are only so many hours in the day. One of the things that ForceBrands has done for us is send qualified candidates without having to invest resources on an internal recruiter.”
For the Slate Milk team, the job board is an ideal hiring solution for their current talent needs.
“The job board is a great solution if you’re in between LinkedIn recruiting yourself or hiring a recruiting firm,” Belinsky said.
ForceBrands offers end-to-end hiring solutions for all stages of growth. Whether you’re just starting to hire or are looking for the next step in your career, we’re here to help you be a positive Force that makes an impact.
